Sensex, Nifty listless; pharma, IT stocks under pressure

NEW DELHI: The BSE Sensex pared all of its early morning gains and turned choppy on Tuesday, weighed down by selling in realty, metal and IT stocks.

Markets were moving in a tight range with a negative bias in the absence of buying interest ahead of the winter session even as the global markets remained firm.

At 02:00 pm, the 50-share Nifty index was at 5,564.45, down 7.15 points or 0.13 per cent. It touched a high of 5,613.70 and a low of 5,559.85 in trade today.

The Sensex was at 18,306.92, down 32 points or 0.18 per cent. It touched a high of 18,467.91 and a low of 18,295.92 in trade today.

"Indian markets may move around sun-5600 levels on the Nifty ahead of the Parliament session that is going to open shortly (on Thursday) and expectations are that the government might find it difficult to get legislations passed in the Parliament," said UR Bhat, MD, Dalton Capital Advisors.

"The market is looking for some big directional movement based on some dramatic moves by the government, hopefully to get out of the logjam," he added.

The BSE Midcap Index was down 0.67 per cent and the BSE Smallcap Index moved lower to 0.71 per cent.

Shares of SKS Microfinance gained momentum in the early trade on Tuesday and were locked in 5 per cent upper circuit on reports that foreign investors have hiked their stake to an all-time high of 31.77 per cent in the July-September quarter -- from a record low of 8.33 per cent at the end of preceding three-month period.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Realty Index was down 2.5 per cent, the BSE Metal Index moved 0.84 per cent lower and the BSE IT Index declined 0.70 per cent.